Schlaining Castle

Stadtschlaining, Austria

Schlaining Castle is one of Austria’s best-preserved medieval castle complexes. The original Gothic structure was expanded over time by additions in the Renaissance and Baroque styles. The castle was first mentioned in 1271. It has been owned by counts of Güssing, Emperor Friedrich III and Batthyány family.

The castle’s inner courtyard contains a mighty keep with walls up to eight metres thick. One part of the castle houses a collection of cast iron and weapons, another has been turned into a modern hotel with conference facilities. Schlaining Castle is also home to the European Peace Museum.

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Address

Rochusplatz 1, Stadtschlaining, Austria
See all sites in Stadtschlaining

Details

Founded: 13th century
Category: Castles and fortifications in Austria

More Information

www.burgenland.info

Rating

4.4/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Riegersburg Castle (44 km)
Forchtenstein Castle (43,3 km)
Güssing Castle (29,7 km)
Jurisics Castle (20,8 km)
Semmering Railway (48,8 km)
Landsee Castle (27,3 km)
Vorau Priory (30,7 km)
Szombathely Cathedral (27,4 km)
Lockenhaus Castle (14,1 km)

User Reviews

Alexander Borum (2 years ago)
Wonderful setting, notably for high level seminars
Tatiana Anton (2 years ago)
Quite and peaceful. Recommend for those who want to escape from urban noise.
Melinda Várfi (2 years ago)
Energetic place, beautiful forest paths around the castle.
Suvendu Das (2 years ago)
The history of humanity is a constant up and down of wars and peace. The European Museum of Peace wants to introduce you to this history of war and peace, causes and conditions of peace, violence and peace, for which Schlaining Castle and the European Peace University are the ideal setting. Nevertheless, war is not our destiny, humanity is not condemned to eternal war. But peace does not come by itself, as the development of the European Union shows. One hundred years ago, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Alfred Nobel wrote: "If you want peace, you must prepare peace." This is also the guiding principle of the Peace Museum, which aims to make a small contribution to the emergence of the global peace consciousness with its scientific, artistic and pedagogical concept. Another principle of the museum is that peace is more than the absence of violence and war. Because the emergency of life is not the war, but the peace in which we all have to prove ourselves. Positive peace therefore always has something to do with freedom and human rights, with social justice and the preservation of the natural environment. Therefore, the European Museum of Peace assumes a comprehensive understanding of peace, encompassing violence and its prevention, the environment and its preservation, conflicts and their processing, and peace and its development.
Mohammad Kordi (3 years ago)
A beautiful place, in the hart of a charming nature. You can feel peace, quite and the voice of the nature. I really enjoyed my time there, and the museum is beautiful place, it is only need to be developed from the services side like to buy more things as a souvenir. The staff is really nice and kind.
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Historic Site of the week

Glimmingehus

Glimmingehus is the best preserved medieval stronghold in Scandinavia. It was built 1499-1506, during an era when Scania formed a vital part of Denmark, and contains many defensive arrangements of the era, such as parapets, false doors and dead-end corridors, 'murder-holes' for pouring boiling pitch over the attackers, moats, drawbridges and various other forms of death traps to surprise trespassers and protect the nobles against peasant uprisings. The lower part of the castle's stone walls are 2.4 meters (94 inches) thick and the upper part 1.8 meters (71 inches).

Construction was started in 1499 by the Danish knight Jens Holgersen Ulfstand and stone-cutter-mason and architect Adam van Düren, a North German master who also worked on Lund Cathedral. Construction was completed in 1506.

Ulfstand was a councillor, nobleman and admiral serving under John I of Denmark and many objects have been uncovered during archeological excavations that demonstrate the extravagant lifestyle of the knight's family at Glimmingehus up until Ulfstand's death in 1523. Some of the most expensive objects for sale in Europe during this period, such as Venetian glass, painted glass from the Rhine district and Spanish ceramics have been found here. Evidence of the family's wealth can also be seen inside the stone fortress, where everyday comforts for the knight's family included hot air channels in the walls and bench seats in the window recesses. Although considered comfortable for its period, it has also been argued that Glimmingehus was an expression of "Knighthood nostalgia" and not considered opulent or progressive enough even to the knight's contemporaries and especially not to later generations of the Scanian nobility. Glimmingehus is thought to have served as a residential castle for only a few generations before being transformed into a storage facility for grain.

An order from Charles XI to the administrators of the Swedish dominion of Scania in 1676 to demolish the castle, in order to ensure that it would not fall into the hands of the Danish king during the Scanian War, could not be executed. A first attempt, in which 20 Scanian farmers were ordered to assist, proved unsuccessful. An additional force of 130 men were sent to Glimmingehus to execute the order in a second attempt. However, before they could carry out the order, a Danish-Dutch naval division arrived in Ystad, and the Swedes had to abandon the demolition attempts. Throughout the 18th century the castle was used as deposit for agricultural produce and in 1924 it was donated to the Swedish state. Today it is administered by the Swedish National Heritage Board.

On site there is a museum, medieval kitchen, shop and restaurant and coffee house. During summer time there are several guided tours daily. In local folklore, the castle is described as haunted by multiple ghosts and the tradition of storytelling inspired by the castle is continued in the summer events at the castle called "Strange stories and terrifying tales".

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